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Line 1542 - Commentary Note (CN)

Commentary notes (CN):

1. SMALL CAPS Indicate editions. Notes for each commentator are divided into three parts:

In the 1st two lines of a record, when the name of the source text (the siglum) is printed in SMALL CAPS, the comment comes from an EDITION; when it is in normal font, it is derived from a book, article, ms. record or other source. We occasionally use small caps for ms. sources and for works related to editions. See bibliographies for complete information (in process).

2. How comments are related to predecessors' comments. In the second line of a record, a label "without attribution" indicates that a prior writer made the same or a similar point; such similarities do not usually indicate plagiarism because many writers do not, as a practice, indicate the sources of their glosses. We provide the designation ("standard") to indicate a gloss in common use. We use ≈ for "equivalent to" and = for "exactly alike."

3. Original comment. When the second line is blank after the writer's siglum, we are signaling that we have not seen that writer's gloss prior to that date. We welcome correction on this point.

4. Words from the play under discussion (lemmata). In the third line or lines of a record, the lemmata after the TLN (Through Line Number] are from Q2. When the difference between Q2 and the authors' lemma(ta) is significant, we include the writer's lemma(ta). When the gloss is for a whole line or lines, only the line number(s) appear. Through Line Numbers are numbers straight through a play and include stage directions. Most modern editions still use the system of starting line numbers afresh for every scene and do not assign line numbers to stage directions.

5. Bibliographic information. In the third line of the record, where we record the gloss, we provide concise bibliographic information, expanded in the bibliographies, several of which are in process.

6. References to other lines or other works. For a writer's reference to a passage elsewhere in Ham. we provide, in brackets, Through Line Numbers (TLN) from the Norton F1 (used by permission); we call these xref, i.e., cross references. We call references to Shakespearean plays other than Ham. “parallels” (//) and indicate Riverside act, scene and line number as well as TLN. We call references to non-Shakespearean works “analogues.”

7. Further information: See the Introduction for explanations of other abbreviations. Click here for more information about browsing the entries and here for more information about the special symbols used in Hamletworks. Click the question mark icon above to remove this help message.

Notes for lines 1018-2022 ed. Eric Rasmussen

For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.

1542 {Player} < 1. Play>. But who, {a woe} <O who>, had seene the {mobled} <inobled> Queene,	2.2.502

1723 pope1

pope1

1542 mobled Queene] Pope (ed. 1723): “In the first folio edition, it is th’ enobled Queen.”

1743 mf3bl

mf3bl

1542 mobled] mf3bl (1743, f. 7r): “Mobled is removed, or undressed.”

1747 warb

warb

1542 mobled Queene] Warburton (ed. 1747): “Mobled or mabled, signifies veiled. So Sandys, speaking of the Turkish women, says, their heads and faces are MABLED in fine linen, that no more is to be seen of them than their eyes. Travels.”

1748 Upton

Upton

1542 the mobled Queene] Upton (1748, pp. 320-1): “The mobled* queen: this designedly affected expression seems to be formed from Virg. Aen. II, 40. Magnâ comitante caterva.” * I once thought it should be mabled, I. carelesly dressed. The word is used in the northern parts of England; and by Sandys in his travels, p. 148. The elder mabble their heads in linnen, &c.

1765 john1

john1: warb

1542 mobled Queene] Johnson (ed. 1765): “Mobled signifies, huddled, grossly covered.”

1773 v1773

1542 mobled Queene] Steevens (ed. 1773): “The folio reads - the innobled queen; and in all probability it is the true reading. This pompous but unmeaning epithet might be introduced merely to make her Phrygian majesty appear more ridiculous in the following lines, where she is represented as wearing a clout on her head; or, innobled queen may however signify the queen unnobled, i.e. divested of her former dignities. Mr. UPTON would read mob-led queen. Magna comitante caterva.”

FARMER (in STEEVENS ed. 1773 10:Qq5v): “I meet with this word in Shirley’s Gentleman of Venice, ‘The moon does mobble up herself’.”

1773 jen

jen = warb + john1

1774-79? capn

capn

1542 mobled Queene] Capell (1774-79, 1:135): “All editions but one, (the first folio) for “ennobl’d” have “mobled; which is either a mistake of the printer’s, or some player’s correction, with design to encrease the place’s extravagance, for which there was small occasion: “mobled” could not take with Polonius; but the other fine epithet has an air of some pomp with it, and is fitted to excite his applause and the wonder of Hamlet. Though the whole of this speech be ridiculous, as well as the exclamation preceding, it should not be made nonsense; and therefore the very easy amendment of it’s final hemistich (54, 13.) is adopted from the Oxford edition. The correction in p. 52. is in the four latter moderns.”

1779- mcapn

(Manuscript annotation in a copy of CAPN): “Landys,[Sandys?] in his account of the Jews speaking of their womensaith. [?] ‘The elder mabble their heads in Linnin’

Have no doubt but Shakespear wrote Mabbled Queen & not mobled as it is printed in the late editions his [?] HamletCapel write [sic] — ennobled Queen.”

1780 Mals

Mals

1542 But who, a woe] Malone (1780, p.355): “The folio reads, I believe, rightly, But who, O who, had seen & c. Malone.”

1784 ays1

ays1:warb, john, v1773

1542 mobled] Ayscough (ed. 1784): “According to Warburton, mobled, or mabled, signifies veiled; according to Dr. Johnson, it is huddled, grossly covered. Mr. Steevens says, he was informed that mab-led in Warwickshire (where it is pronounced mobled) signifies led about by a will o’ the wisp, an ignis fatuus. Mr. Tollet adds, that in the latter end of the reign of king Charles II. the rabble that attended the earl of Shaftsbury’s partizans was first called mobile vulgus, and afterwards, by contraction, the mob; and, ever since, the word mob has become proper English.”

1785 Mason

Mason: v1773

1542 Mason (1785, p. 382): “We should probably read, ‘But who, Ah woe! had seen the mobled queen.’ Steevens says that the folio reads enobled queen, which he suspects to have been the right reading: but were that the case, Hamlet would not have repeated it as an odd expression.”

1790 mal

mal

1542 But who, a woe] Malone (ed. 1790): “Thus the quarto, except that it has —a woe. A is printed instead of ah in various places in the old copies. Woe was formerly used adjectively for woeful. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: ‘Woe, woe are we, sir, you may not live to wear All your true followers out.’ The folio reads—’But who, O who, &c.’

1542 mobled Queene] Malone (ed. 1790): “The mabled queen, (or mobled queen, as it is spelt in the quarto,) means, the queen attired in a large, coarse, and careless head-dress. A few lines lower we are told she had ‘a clout upon that head, where late the diadem stood.’ The word is used (as Dr. Warburton has observed) by Sandys in his travels. Speaking of the Turkish women, he says, ‘their heads and faces are mabled in fine linen, that no more is to be seen of them than their eyes.’ To mab, (which in the North is pronounced mob, and hence the spelling of the old copy in the present instance,) says Ray in his Dict. of North Country words, is ‘to dress carelesly. Mabs are slatterns.’ The ordinary morning head-dress of ladies continued to be distinguished by the name of a mab, to almost the end of the reign of George the second. The folio reads—the inobled queen.

1790- wesley

Wesley: Upton

1542 mobled Queene] Wesley (ms. notes 1790-, p.45): “Upton reads says ‘the mob-led Queen’. Tollet points out that ‘mob’ was first used in the reign of Charles II) “Good.”

1790- mtooke

mtooke

1542 mobled] Tooke (ms. notes, ed. 1790): “Aye, and is now used commonly toward the end of the reign of George 3d.”

1815 Becket

Becket

1542 mobled] Becket (1815, p. 38): “The commentators are all on a wrong scent. I am persuaded that Shakspeare has here coined a word from mobilis Lat. without knowing the particular meaning of the Latin term. By mobiled queen, — he means the moved, agitated, queen, as the context will clearly show.” </p. 38>

1819 mclr

mclr

Coleridge (1819): “A mob-cap is still a word in common use for amorning cap, which conceals the whole head of hair and passes under the chin—It is nearly the same as the night-cap—i.e an imitation of it so as to answer the purpose (‘I am not drest for company’) and yet reconciling it with neatness and perfect purity. [etymologically connected with mop?—”

-1845 mhun1

mhun1

1542 But who, a woe] Hunter (-1845, f. 243v): “The reading of the new found quarto must turn the seal in favour of the reading of the folio ‘But who, oh who, had seen the mobbled queen’.”

1847 verp

verp

1542 mobled Queene] Verplanck (ed. 1847): “Hastily and carelessly muffled up; her ‘bisson rheum’ [1547] means blinding tears.”

1856 hud1 (1851-6)

hud1

1542 But...Queene] Hudson (ed. 1856): “‘O! who had seen the mobled.’ Thus the first quarto; the other quartos have a woe instead of O! who. The folio agrees with the first quartto, except that it misprints inobled for mobled.--Mobled is hastily or carelessly dressed. To mob or mab is still used in the north of England for to dress in a slatternly manner; and Coleridge says "mob-cap is till a word in common use for a morning cap.’ H.”

1861 wh1

wh1

1542 mobled] White (ed. 1861): “‘---the mobbled Queen’:--’Mobbled’ maens muffled about the head. Hercuba is described as having a clout upon her head. ’Mob,’ in this sense, is still in use in the compound ’mob-cap.’ The folio has, in all three instances, ‘innobled queene’--a misprint surely.”

1864 g.h.

G.H. (1864, p. 66): “I have never felt quite satisfied with the received spellings or the meanings attached to the epithet in this expression. Some editors write it ‘mob-led;’ meaning, I presume, hurried along in a crowd; others say, ‘mobled’ or ‘mobbled’; which they explain as ‘muffled up.’ In the more primitive parts of Yorkshire, where old words stull survive, there is one in common use, which, I thing, exactly hits poor Hecuba’s condition. It is “madlet” or “maddled’; which means, not absolutely mad, but bewildered almost to madness. Thus it is said, a man maddled, is maddling, or is maddled, when he talks or acts in a vague, feeble, and irrational manner. I respectfully submit the suggested ‘emendation’ to the critical readers of Shakespeare.”

1867 Keightley

Keightley

1542 Mobled] Keightley (1867, pp. 410): “(Ham. ii. 2), having the face covered. ‘The moon doth mobble up herself’ (Shirley, Gent. Of Venice). Its derivation is uncertain; but it may be connected with muffle.”

1869 Romdahl

Romdahl

1542 mobled] Romdahl (1869, p. 29): “Mobled = dressed carelessly (or covered with a careless head-dress). Mab, or mob, as it is generally called in the northern counties, signifies a mourning cap for ladies. To mab, still used in the North, is to dress carelessly; hence to mable or moble = to cover with a careless head-dress, to wrap up in a mob or hood. — The first folio has: inobled, which, if not an error of the press, must be = enobled.”

1881 hud2

hud2

1542 mobled] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Mobled is hastily or carelessly dressed. To mob or mab is still used in the north of England for to dress in a slatternly manner; and Coleridge says ‘mob--cap is still a word in common use for a morning cap.’”

1877 clns

clns

1542 mobled] Neil (ed. 1877): “Upton, who once thought the this word should be mobbled, carelessly dressed, afterwards suggested that ‘this designedly affected expression seemed to be formed from Virgil’s Æneid, ii, 40: Magna comitante caterva (engirt by a mighty throng); as if mob-led.’ Warburton explains it as veiled; Holt White holds that it is a depravation of muffled up.”

1885 macd

macd

1542 mobled] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “’mobled’—also in 1st Q.—may be the word: muffed seems a corruption of it: compare mob-cap, and ‘The moon does mobble up herself’—Shirley, quoted by Farmer; but I incline to ‘inobled,’ thrice in the Folio—once with a capital: I take it to stand for ‘ignobled, degraded.’”

1890 irv

irv

1542 mobled] Symons (in Irving & Marshall ed. 1890): ‘F. 1, by a misprint corrected in F. 2, reads inobled. The word was probably archaic in Shakespeare’s time. It seems to have been a corruption of ‘muffled.’ Warburton quotes Sandys, Travels, vol. i. P. 69, ed. 1637, who says, speaking of the Turkish women: ‘their heads and faces are so mabled in fine linen, that nothing is to be seen of them but their eyes.’ Farmer quotes Shirley’s Gentlemen of Venice: The moon does mobble up herself. It seems generally to be used in the sense of muffling roughly or untidily. Below we are told that the Queen had a ‘clout’ upon her head.

1899 ard1

ard1

1542 mobled] Dowden (ed. 1899): “muffled. Warburton quotes from Sandy’s Travels: ‘Their [Turkish women’s] heads and faces are so marbled in fine linen.’ Farmer quotes Shirley, Gentlemen of Venice: ‘The moon does mobble up herself.’”